Tag Archives: motivate

Listen to A Different Perspective From Voices of Experience
By Leslie Wolff

Show Love & Respect

“Every person is a jewel, worthy of love and respect.” – Anonymous

A proud part of my career was when I was the business and personal manager of one of the world’s most famous athletes – Smokin Joe Frazier, the former World Heavyweight Boxing Champion in his later years. I was constantly amazed at the love and respect he received from his fans and it didn’t take long for me to understand why … because, he showed his love and respect for them. How many companies do you know show love and respect to their customers, employees, vendors, hell even their competition. It costs nothing to do so and the rewards are constant and significant. What should you do, the opportunities are limitless. One way is expressed ‘Thank You” whenever the opportunity arises. In a world of a never ending flow of e-mails, a simple hand written note will raise you high above your competition. Treat your employees well and they will treat your customers well. Let vendors know you recognize their efforts on your behalf and they will redouble or multiply the way in which they will seek to help you grow your business. Even competitors will have good things to say about you when you treat them with respect as well. Going back to the impact of e-mail where in the past a good or bad experience led to it be “told” to perhaps 10 other people, in today’s high tech communication channels it could be told to thousands, thus you want that ‘tale” to express how well you treat those with whom you interact.

Don’t be afraid of Change

“The world hates change, yet it is the only thing that has brought progress.” – Charles Kettering

The fear of change is a natural human response to something that seems new and opening your mind to be more accepting to change or the consideration of it releases you from the binds of conformity allowing you to examine and explore possibilities that exist around you. Some of these may offer the opportunity to maximize your potential revenue while minimizing expense. Look at the various facets of your business from new business development, advertising, promotion customer service with a fresh perspective and encourage customers, employees and even vendors to contribute ideas that can enhance your operation and in doing so impact positively your bottom line.

Big Ideas Start Small

”Small opportunities are often the beginning of great enterprises” — Demosthenes

Just because you have limited funds does not mean you can’t take carefully controlled actions to improve results. If you believe you have identified a need that has gone unrecognized or is underserved look at how you can develop it in a way where you give it all you can. Think big, but remember everything starts out small. Never prejudge an idea because at first it looks too small, unimportant or unrealistic nor if your initial view is its too big. Look how you can break it down
into reasonable modules, set priorities and take each segment on in a way it will make the other segments easier to handle as you accomplish each step.

Motivate to Stimulate

“Recognition is the greatest motivator.” – Gerard C. Eakedale

Surprisingly, although material rewards are appreciated they are not as effective in motivating people and stimulating them to perform to more of there potential than praise and recognition. Praise of one’s contributions to the success of the business is the most desired reward of all. Publicizing that praise to the right audiences makes it even more valued to
the recipient. Something a simple as a press release to a local paper, a framed ‘Certificate of Appreciation” or a simple letter to be shared with family and friends recognizing one’s contributions carries with a major positive impact not only on that person but those with whom they interact.

Originate Don’t Imitate

“It is better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation.” – Herman Melville

There is a tendency in all businesses to mimic each other and that can be a benefit for a smart marketer. Take a close look at what your competition is doing where there is a tendency to replicate, duplicate or imitate. In identify those traits you will almost always find overlooked and untapped opportunities that will enable you to outsmart rather then outspend the competition. It may be a single large opportunity or a series of small things like we discussed above where the cumulative effect of the actions you take can significantly impact the results you gain.

“The successful person has the habit of doing the things failures don’t like to do.” ~ Thomas Edison

Leslie R. Wolff is an experienced and outspoken Marketing professional; with more than a half century in the marketing arena His mission in his business, speeches and writings is to reestablish a lost factor in business … commonsense! It is the foundation on which Smart Thinking is built. Les is CEO of The Smart Marketing Group, who simply help clients work smarter. He can be reached at 215-334-3432, marketingsmartly@aol.com, Skype: Smart Marketing or http://www.smartmarketingroup.com. Listen to his radio show, “Smart Marketing for Small Business” and participate in his LinkedIn Group of the same name.